Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Santander have decided
not to renew their subscriptions to
blockchain working group, R3, The
TRADE understands.

Goldman Sachs was one of
nine banks that founded R3 in
2014, alongside Credit Suisse, JP
Morgan and others. The TRADE
understands Goldman Sachs did
not renew the membership, as it
no longer aligned with the bank’s
technology strategy.

Santander also confirmed its
departure from R3, although reiterated their decision to leave did not
reflect a disinterest in distributed
ledger technology. Santander said
it would continue to concentrate
on its other blockchain initiatives.

Similarly, Goldman Sachs’ said
its commitment to exploring
blockchain is seen through its
recent investment in Digital Asset
Holdings. In February this year,
Goldman joined 13 other investors
in a funding round, which saw total
investment in Digital Asset Holdings reach $60 million. Morgan
Stanley declined to comment.

Discussing the investment, PaulWalker, global co-head of technolo-gy at Goldman, explained the bank believes blockchaintechnology “will play a transformative role in the wayfinancial institutions transact globally.”“We look forward to working with Digital Asset andthe broader financial and technical community toengage this emerging technology,” he added.R3 explained in response to the confirmed depar-tures: “As with any project of this scale and scope, wealways expected the make-up of the consortium tochange over time.“Developing technology like this requires dedica-tion and significant resources, and our diverse pool ofmembers all have different capacities and capabilitieswhich naturally change over time.”The blockchain working group also highlighted therecent additions of Dutch bank ABN AMRO, Cincinna-ti based Fifth Third Bank, insurance provider SuncorpGroup and financial services company SynchronyFinancial.The high profile departures from the R3 have raisedquestions about the commercials of the venture’s busi-ness model, according to an industry expert.Nick Weisfeld, data practice head and blockchainspecialist at GFT, said that the issues are not with thepotential of blockchain technology.

DEAL INNUMBERS

R3

was founded in
2014 by former
CEO of electronic
broking at ICAP,
David Rutter.